Draft Picks

I've recently had, and likely will still be in, a great debate about the value of a draft pick. Now, the debate began upon discussion about the trade the Ottawa Senators made with the New York Islanders. The trade sent San Jose's 1st Round draft pick that they recieved in the Meszaros trade that brought Kuba and Picard to Ottawa. The debate sprung from that very draft pick. So what is the value of that draft pick? As the trade goes, the exchange was the draft pick for Chris Campoli. Now many people will dwell on the round that the pick was in. Agreed, a first round draft pick is still top 30 but the idea behind this is that Sanjose's pick will likely be in last 5 picks in that round where the likelyhood of the pick projected extremely well is low. Now that being said, there have been some great picks in the lower end of the first round:
1998: Cheechoo 29th overall
1999: Havlat 26th Overall
2000: Kronwall 29th overall
2001: Derek Roy 32nd overall
2003: Mike Richards 24th overall, Perry 28th overall, Erikson 33rd overall.
2004: Mike Green 29th overall

Now the reality is that this is a list of 8 players over 6 years who have become premier players. Now the issue that's argued is what is Campoli's worth? He had a great rookie year coming into the NHL with a weak Islanders team. He then didn't record the same amount of points he managed in his rookie year but given the team he was on, it wasn't all that unexpected. Now Chris Campoli has shown he has a lot of potential. In coming into Ottawa he has 4 Points in 6 Games and has nearly played at a point a game pace. He's shown some good mobility on the back end and a willingness to play a physical game. Is he better than the player Ottawa would have drafted with that pick? Maybe, maybe not. But the thing to remember is that Ottawa wants to be competitive and playoff bound next season and hopefully seasons afterwards. They can't exactly wait 3-4 years to see if a player will develop. They now get a player who can play in that 2, 3 or 4 slot on defence now and the future. Does that solve Ottawa's problems? Probably not but it goes a long way to fix their issues. Whether they were to develop a defeceman of the same calibre through the draft or trade for him, the fact remains they still adressed an issue.